Mr. Fielder laughed at the parent’s new plan to start a fire by the doors. They even had buckets of water ready to douse it, and everyone wore wet cloths over their mouths. He laughed not at their preparations, but at the fact that the doors were quite impervious to fire. These moments when he was alone in Millie’s office were his favorite moments, when he was in charge. Just then the doors to her office swung open menacingly, and Millie strode in followed by the committee.
“Fielder! What’s happening with the parents?” She boomed.
“They’ve just started a fire.”
“Good, let it burn out, and then activate the sprinkler system.” She cackled. “Then turn the air-conditioning on to full.”
Fielder and the other committee members laughed raucously. “Yes my Queen.” Fielder acknowledged.
“It’s been over sixteen hours since team two activated their Purge device, and we still can’t get our people into the catacombs without running into the lockout loop. I’m beginning to think you all maybe right, in which case we have failed again.” She said taking a seat in her big soft chair that Fielder quickly vacated. “Still we should keep some of the parents nearby in case one of the missing teams pops up, causing us trouble.”
“My Ruler!” A man known as Mr. Koko objected, “How can a few sniveling brats cause us any trouble?”
“Well if they are off world, and not just plain gone for good, they’ll undoubtedly realize that this is no game. Since they might even be able to initiate transfers eventually, they could just pop in uninvited you see.” Mille explained to them. “The whole idea was to have them penetrate the catacombs’ lockout, so we can get off world, not for them to be. Our Purge device seems to be stronger than we anticipated, just not in the right ways.”
“The device is being redesigned as we speak my Queen.” Mr. Koko informed her. “We can make another attempt soon.”
“General Koko, you have been living amongst these creatures for over a thousand years now.” Millie was curt. “Just what part of free will don’t you understand?
Koko was flustered. “We can convince them that their Quest continues, Master. We can have the robotics guide them as far as possible, and hope they might find the spire. Even though the last attempt failed, we cannot stop trying!” He growled the last words angrily. “I for one am not willing to spend another millennia in this despicable form, amongst these vile creatures!”
Millie nodded agreement with the sentiments she too shared. “We will not give up! Proceed with your new design work, and try to figure out a way to make the children want to try again. If they don’t want to, with honestly, with forthrightness and of purity of essence; then they will never be able to breech the lockout.” She gazed at her troop with learned patience. “I suspect though, that the children that returned from the catacombs; will not wish to enter them again.”
The one named Mr. McGillas, whom was always very careful with his words, spoke up. “The children are next to useless now. All they want are their precious mommies and daddies.”
Millie sighed. “I thought so. Mr. Fielder, we’ve had enough fun with the parents for now. Let’s reunite them with their children; it will make them all much easier to deal with in the long run. Release the sleep gas.” She commanded.
“Yes my Queen.” Fielder obeyed, and pushed a button.
----------
Becky was just returning from bringing another sack of berries from the thickets Sarah, and Penelope had found the afternoon before, when she spied Joshua crouched beneath the small tree holding a stick out over the edge of the pond. The sky was a crystal azure blue with a softly wavering breeze caressing the lush landscape. Warm morning sunlight sparkled off the tiny waves caused by the breeze on the clear blue pond waters. She felt much better now that it was full daylight, as opposed to her fitful night’s sleep. None of the children had slept well, as all were tired, cold and afraid. Even the fire they had kept burning most of the night didn’t seem to assuage the inner chills of bewilderment each felt. Seeing the galaxy in the night sky didn’t help matters either, as it was quite obvious they were a long way from home. The only inner strength any of them could possibly garner, was from each other. Knowing they were not alone.
Becky watched silently for several moments, as Joshua certainly seemed intent on whatever it was he was doing. Then she wanted to know what it was, “Hey Josh! Whatchya doing?” Joshua quickly motioned with his hand for her to be quiet. Becky watched his short brown hair tussle with a stronger gust of morning breeze, thinking how adorable he seemed just then. Not that she didn’t always find him so, but at that moment her heart ached especially much. You see, she knew that he would never feel the same toward her. Becky looked down at herself, seeing a chunky form fitting the golden jump suit with entirely too many bulges. How could he like her? She determined right then, that she would do something about those bulges. Survival on this world wasn’t going to be easy, and maybe that would get her in shape. She resolved to work even harder than she already had been.
As Becky looked back up to watch Joshua, something magical happened. The end of the stick Joshua was so diligently holding, suddenly jerked towards the water, and then it did it again.
“Hey Becky, look what we found!” Penny blurted excitedly. Becky was startled by the two girls as they joined her from behind.
“Shhh!” Becky reproached Penelope. “Look.” She pointed to the pond where Joshua was. Just as the stick twitched once more, Joshua jerked backwards on it hard, and then they witnessed the fight between the boy and whatever was on the other end of his line. The huge smile that took over his face said volumes, and Becky thought to herself; ‘he’s loving it!’
Then it instantly got serious, as the thing yanked so hard it pulled Joshua off his knees and onto his side. It got scary as the thing kept pulling hard enough to drag Joshua into the water.
“Let go of it Josh!” Becky yelled and was then in a dead run around the pond towards him. Penelope and Sarah dropped their sacks and ran after her too. Josh managed to turn his feet around to dig them into the shallow edge of the pond, but the thing kept yanking so hard that he began to panic. Suddenly the stick broke, and Josh went sprawling backwards into the water. The girls saw this and slowed their breakneck pace, as he was not in peril of being pulled in any further.
Scarcely a moment elapsed, when a very large fish jumped out of the water near the pond’s center. It came all the way out into the air, and they saw its’ shimmering scales reflect beautifully in the sunlight; sparkling glimmers of a bright golden hue. The splash it made landing sent a shower of water that could be heard all over the little valley.
Becky arrived to help him up out of the pond, and Joshua said breathlessly; “Did you see that?”
“Did you hurt your foot?” She only asked in response. He shook his head, now wearing the huge smile again.
“Did you see the size of that thing?” He couldn’t contain himself.
Sarah and Penelope came scampering up, “Is he OK?” Sarah asked of Becky, whom nodded.
“Why did you do that Josh?” Penny admonished him.
“To catch a fish,” He looked at them incredulously, “so we could eat it.”
“That fish almost ate you Joshua Clarke!” Sarah spoke wryly.
‘It did not!” He defended, and his smile was gone.
Penelope remembered their packs they had dropped. “I’m going to go get our knapsacks Sarah.”
“Oh yeah, we’ll meet you at the ‘shanty’.” Sarah told her. “You don’t need to catch any fish now Josh, because we found a whole bunch of different berries and fruits over that hill.” She pointed past the thickets they’d found before.
“Oh, OK.” Joshua sounded defeated. Even though his foot was much better this morning, he still felt bad that he couldn’t help out as much as the girls had been.
Becky had been especially on the job, gathering most of
the firewood, and materials for their lean-to, or ‘shanty’ as she and the others had started to call it. Now it seemed that Sarah, and Penelope had even found further food sources for the team. He couldn’t know that just by his being there he’d genuinely helped cement the girls together, as he was several years older, and they figured that must mean he was wiser too. Not to mention he was big enough to scare off any animals, or scary things in the night.
“Oh Josh!” Becky lamented, “You’ve gotten your bandage all wet. We better change that with a dry one right away.” She took him by hand and led him towards their ‘shanty’ for his own good, but with his umbrage.
----------
The first few minutes the three children spent together on the formidable bridge after Tristan was rescued were quiet ones. They needn’t say a word as the look in their eyes said enough.
“Thanks again.” Tristan finally broke the silence, and then added; “Do you have any water? I, ummm drank the last of mine.”
Two bottles pushed at him was enough of an answer.
Then Leena remembered the berries they had gathered hastily. “Try these.” She encouraged as she passed the open knapsack to him.
He inspected the fruit and asked; “What are these?”
“Not sure, but they’re delicious.” She answered.
Tristan started feasting as if he hadn’t eaten in days, and it occurred to Leena that he might not have eaten recently. “Didn’t you bring any food Tristan?” She wondered aloud.
Between squishing mouthfuls of red staining delight, he muttered, “I left most my food with the others. Didn’t know how long they would be there, until I could bring help.” He consumed almost half the quantity in Leena’s knapsack before stopping eating abruptly. Both Leena and William encouraged him to have some more, but he politely refused. The three sat there a while, contented, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine of the morning. William retrieved his map from his pack, and began jotting some notes down.
“Are you still mapping all this William?” Leena asked.
William nodded as a matter of fact. “Just marking the main parts, and giving them names to help remember them by. Let’s see, we’ll call that climb around the smashed out trail; ‘The Devil’s Bowl, and then the bridge I’ll name ‘The Holy Bridge’.” This brought a chuckle from the other two.
Tristan got up first, and went over to the edge of the giant bridge, looking over the rails downward; the bottom of the deep gorge was still shrouded in mist several kilometers below them.
“This is unbelievable!” Tristan gasped. The other two joined him, and they too were in awe. Their gaze wandered over all of the majestic beauty surrounding them, eventually ending upwards; literally straight upwards at the spire that so brazenly gouged at the heavens. It was like something out of a science fiction novel; so obviously alien.
“Well,” Leena said it first; “We didn’t come all this way for nothing.”
Tristan gathered his pack and put it back on. “Yes, shall we?” He started across the impressive span toward the base of the spire structure.
“We shall.” Leena added as she too packed up.
William followed their lead, saying, “If anybody is in there, then they sure don’t care if people get stuck on their poorly maintained bridge.”
There were several other holes in the surface of the stout bridge, which appeared to have been caused by impossibly large boulders falling. Even though they easily steered clear of these in the light of day, it didn’t stop Leena from giving Tristan some good-natured ribbing. “Boy, these holes are so big, you could almost step right into one of them.”
“Yeah.” Tristan twitched.
William laughed whole heartedly.
The other side was coming into clear view by then, and they saw there was the dark outline of an opening into the base of the spire atop a thick set of stone steps. The material of the towering structure was smooth looking, contrasting with the rough cliff side around it. As the three approached they saw there were two smooth ramps up either side of the steps ending at the same platform the steps did. The large opening into the spire was still so dark they couldn’t discern any detail inside at all, it was as if a veil were covering the entrance making it eerily obscure.
“This is weird.” Leena let out. “It’s like a barrier of some sort. You can’t even see the slightest bit of light even right inside on the surface.”
“So, who’s first?” William looked at Tristan.
Tristan let his eyes roll some just for effect, though he really felt like relieving himself right there. He squared his shoulders saying, “That would be me.”
“Wait, maybe we should...” Leena began, but then Tristan marched right through the entrance. The sound of an electrical like crackle marked his passing through whatever sort of barrier it was, and Tristan totally vanished from their sight. William and Leena looked at each other with fright, and screamed, “TRISTAN!” Suddenly to their befuddlement, Tristan’s head protruded from the dark veil accompanied by the electrical noise.
“What?” He asked as if annoyed. “I can hear you fine.”
Leena and William were beside themselves. Here was the aberration of Tristan’s head alone floating in the inky black doorway, and talking to them.
“Well? Come on!” Tristan was emphatic, and his head disappeared with a crackle.
It took her a moment, but then Leena ventured forth next, followed closely by William. As each passed through the barrier, the same crackling noise resounded.
The interior was totally dark, except for a very faint circular ring of light they saw from what seemed like far, far above. They heard Tristan’s footsteps ahead of them, and Leena pulled the flashlight from her suit pocket. Just then a bright beam of light pierced the darkness in front of them, and began to dance around the apparently large room, but Leena couldn’t make out what she was seeing. She turned her light on and shined it upon her brother’s back as he used his light to search around.
Then Tristan voiced with triumph, “There!” He started walking away from them.
She focused her light on where his was shining, and saw what he was seeing just as he said, “Stairs.”
Without warning light flickered from all around them, and all over the place, briefly illuminating the whole interior. Just as suddenly it was dark again, except for their flashlight beams. They all froze in their spots.
“Whoa!” William gulped.
In another moment the light from all over flickered on again, but this time it stayed on. Instantly the kids felt completely dwarfed by the size of the chamber. The spire was one big hollow chamber rising many thousands of feet above them, and more than a kilometer across at the base. The light seemed to come from all around them, but the source of it wasn’t readily discernable at first. It wasn’t too bright, in fact it was just right for their eyes, and it seemed to emit from the very wall of the structure, all the way up.
Spiraling up the inside of the immense cone was a staircase which didn’t have any railing, and the way it twisted evermore narrowly up the inside wall of the spire was incredibly forbidding.
“Wow!” They all three muttered, as they stood there in awe.
“The lights must have been activated by us entering through that barrier.” Tristan offered.
Leena looked at him and asked, “Should we?”
William didn’t like the idea of another harrowing climb, after all they still had to get their silly behinds back up across the ‘Devil’s Bowl’, and out of this canyon of ancient giants. Just as he opened his mouth to protest, Tristan spoke first; “Let’s do this.”
The two siblings started up the stairs, which began right near the still veiled entrance to the spire, and wouldn’t stop despite William’s pleas to forget the idea.
“You can wait for us down here if you want William.” Leena spoke as if she didn’t care one way or the other.
“Yeah, but we mi
ght be awhile getting back down buddy.” Tristan added. “This is going to take us all day I figure.”
“If someone were here, wouldn’t they already have seen or heard us?” William was emphatic.
Tristan nodded, “I don’t think anyone is home, but we’ve got to see if this might help us get home.”
“This is the only sign of civilization any of us have seen William. It’s our best bet.” Leena was firm.
William tried one more tactic, “What about sticking together?”
Leena stopped and said, “That is a real good idea William, so come on!”
Reluctantly he started up after them, not wanting to be left alone in this ethereally strange place.
Even though the stairs were wide enough for at least six people abreast at the same time; without any guard rail the combined effect of increasingly greater height, and the way the stairs were always overhanging a straight drop to the bottom, made all of the children hug the wall of the spire as they climbed single file. After about an hour William was lagging behind by a hundred meters or so, and was progressively getting more nervous.
“Hey! This is crazy. We are way too far up here.” William begged, “Let’s stop, and go down.”
Leena and Tristan ignored him, and continued climbing the steps. After another hour he was about to start crying, mainly as he felt left out; when he saw that the pair had stopped ahead, and were fixing to take a lunch break. William found new energy, and briskly scrambled up the hundred meters or so to where they were.
“This is freaking me out guys!” He panted as he joined them.
“Ditto.” Tristan agreed.
Leena nodded, “Yeah, me too, but we have to find out what this is all about.”
William sighed, “I know.”
Berries and water was a meal fit for a king, or emperor, or whatever type of majesty that created this monument they all figured. Their water was getting fairly low by then, and Leena made sure everyone realized this; thus taking it easy on the sips.
Then Tristan tried to brighten their moods, “Don’t you realize, we are the first kids in space.”
“How do you figure we got here?” William asked with sadness.
“Maybe we fell through some kind of doorway.” Tristan hypothesized.
It made as much sense as anything else, and both Leena and William nodded.
William asked with a sullen look, “Do you think we’ll ever get back home?”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” Leena’s voice noticeably brightened. “If we were able to get here; then it only makes sense that there has to be a way to get back too.”
All three of them looked upwards almost involuntarily. They seemed to be just a little over half way to the top, and the mysteries that waited.
The children finished up their lunch and proceeded to climb the seemingly endless stairs. After a certain point the height stopped bothering them so much, as they started to get used to it. It took the better part of the remaining day to climb the last of the stairs, and each of the children were genuinely tired as they approached the summit of the monstrous spire.
They could now see that a large flat disk approximately fifty meters across hung, seemingly by nothing at all, in midair just at the top of the stairs. Just above the disk was a large hole, at least a dozen meters in diameter, leading up into the top of the spire. Natural light filtered down from this hole, though not as bright as all of the artificial light from the walls. The stairs stopped right at the edge of the disk, but the ceiling, or floor of the above chamber was low at this point, making them stoop over at the landing that led onto the floating disk. It honestly looked as though any of them stepping onto the disk would cause it to fall from its’ impossible perch.
Each of the three looked at each other without saying a word. There was no ‘you first’ spoken, and with their eyes alone they all knew it was ‘here we go!’ All three made the leap of faith together, and the disk didn’t budge. As they moved forward and stood up raising their heads up into the top chamber each gasped, “Wow!” It was breath taking. The walls of the top were transparent, giving the effect that the chamber was out in the open air on top of this giant structure. Tristan pulled himself up first, and then helped Leena up, but when he went to give William a hand next, the center of the floating disk suddenly lit up with a red light, and it made a noise like a deep buzzing.
“Hey! What the heck?” William growled disapproval.
“Quick! Give me your hand and get up here now!” Tristan barked at him.
William did so right away, but not before the red light on the disk started to blink, while making the buzzing noise in unison. As soon as William was off of it though the light went out, and the noise stopped.
“What was that all about?” William wondered aloud. Tristan shrugged his shoulders.
“Check out this floor!” Leena exclaimed. It was a deep blue marble like stone, and there were flakes of a lighter material in this. These flakes seemed to flicker and flash with colored lights occasionally. Five short cylindrical pedestals were arranged around the center opening hole in a half circle, and each shimmered with many multi-colored lights.
“This isn’t at all what I expected.” Tristan said.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Leena expressed with evident joy.
The surrounding landscape could be seen for many, many miles, and it was amazingly beautiful. From the mountainous craggy canyon around the spire it smoothed to fertile green plains, ripe with lushness. These plains went on in all directions as far as they could see, but off in the far distant east a sea wavered at the edge of vision.
“Look out there.” Leena pointed. “I love the ocean.”
Tristan examined one of the raised pedestals on the floor. Each was wildly colored with a constantly changing pattern of lights, as if it were some sort of psychedelic art form. He touched, prodded, and smelled it. Then he stood on it. The pedestal lighted as if from a very bright lamp beneath it. Tristan jumped off the thing quickly, and the light just as quickly vanished.
“Did you see that?” He yelled.
Leena and William were already looking, as they has seen the flash of light.
“What was that?” She demanded.
No one said anything for a moment.
“Watch this.” Tristan said with a wry smile, and stepped upon the pedestal again. The light blazed forth from it again, washing over the boy.
“Tristan!” his sister yelled.
He jumped off the device and again the light disappeared.
“Don’t do that again.” She scolded him.
So he jumped right back on it, and the blazing light poured forth. “See it won’t hurt you.” He cajoled.
After a moment Leena, and William saw that the light wasn’t normal at all. It was moving very slowly; like a vapor wrapping around the boy’s limb’s and torso. Tristan noticed this as well, holding his arm up and watched the light vapor curl around it before rising through the top of the spire.
“This is weird.” He stammered.
“Get off that thing!” She commanded. “We don’t know what it does.”
This time he didn’t argue, and the light was gone.
Leena went over and grabbed his arm. “What on Earth is wrong with you? Don’t get on that thing again.”
Just at that moment another light flashed on from behind them. They turned to look, and there was William on one of the pedestals.
“Hey!” Leena barked, “Aren’t you listening either?”
“Listen Leena, you’ve got to try this. It’s really weird.”
“Yeah, go on.” Tristan prodded her.
Leena was becoming curious; so with a deep breath she stepped up on one.
The light lovingly caressed her, and she could feel the tingle of its energy as it wrapped around her. It felt oddly familiar. To Tristan it looked as if she were on fire, a golden radiant fire. Then he to
o stepped back up on a pedestal, and as the three of them were being bathed in light energy a strange thing happened. The light flowing from them rising through the top of the spire suddenly turned ninety degrees horizontally towards the center of the half circle. As each of the three separate beams did this the streams joined, and grew into a sphere of golden translucent light several meters in diameter.
“Yeah!” William let out.
A deep thunderous vibration coursed through the entire spire, and Leena thought she could hear the light energy still wrapping her, breathe a sigh in sync with the vibration. She jumped off the pedestal in fright, and the sphere of light in the center of the chamber disappeared with a loud pop. Tristan and William looked at her with surprise written on their faces, and while the light still bathed them; it now twirled up through the tip of the spire as before.
“What’s wrong?” Tristan asked.
Her response was as obvious as the look on her pretty young face. “I’m frightened.”
William stepped down off his pedestal too, and went over to the now shivering girl. As he put his hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her, Leena embraced him. She sighed, not a happy sigh, but a relieved one. The older of the Welsh’s saw the new development between the two, and it didn’t bother him at all. In fact a beautiful truth shone clear to him as the wonderful light caressed him; it made perfect sense that Leena and William liked each other in that special way. He too stepped down, and the crystal tip of the spire was much dimmer.
“Why don’t we try that again?” he urged them.
It took a moment before Leena slid from William’s quite comfortable embrace. “I don’t know.” She said. “This is all pretty strange. I mean we don’t have a clue what these alien devices do.”
“I know Sis, but it feels right.” Her brother pleaded.
Then William touched her arm in a way that she knew he agreed with Tristan. She turned away from both of them, facing towards the distant sea she had found so comforting just moments ago. The sun was beginning to drop on the western horizon, and an orange hue was cast over the land. She watched silently for long moments as this hue turned golden. It was perhaps this that made up her mind.
“OK.” Leena spat as she spun back around facing them. There really was nothing else to do, as they had to know what was going on.
They each solemnly approached the pedestals, and paused in unison. Leena gave the go ahead nod, then they all stepped up and were instantly bathed in the golden light again. Just like before the light streams bent to form a sphere, and as this grew the spire shook again. Leena listened for the whispered sigh of the light, and it was even more obvious than the first time. This sound grew in intensity as the sphere of golden light grew in size. The whispering soon became almost a shriek as the sphere threatened to envelop them. Leena was just about to jump off the pedestal again when the spire let another tremendous shudder, and at the same instant the sphere did envelop them. All the noise was suddenly shut off, and they found themselves in the center of a golden shell of light, removed from all else.
“What the heck is going on here?” Leena worried.
It felt as if they were floating on a cushion of air, and everything around them was dulled somehow. As each of them looked about, they noticed they could see outside of this shell to the spire chamber, but in the direction of the center the view was quite different than it should be. Instead of seeing the hole in the floor of the chamber, there was a view of some distant place, outlined with a frame of golden light. It was as if a televised picture were being imposed in the space in front of them.
“Do you see that?” William sounded amazed.
“Uh huh.” Both of the Welsh siblings acknowledged in unison.
“Now there is an ocean for you.” William stated.
“An ocean? What do you mean? I see snow covered mountains.” She countered.
They both looked to Tristan for confirmation. “I see a thick forest.” He affirmed.
“What do you think it is?” Leena asked William.
Just as he was starting to theorize, an even brighter light flashed from Tristan’s pedestal, and the whole Spire shook. They both looked to where he should be standing, but he was gone. The light still came flooding upwards from his pedestal though.
Instinctively she yelled for him, “Tristan!”
Several long seconds later he abruptly reappeared with another bright flash of light, and thunderous vibration.
“What happened?” She demanded from him.
“I don’t know. I was just trying to get a better look at that forest, when all of a sudden a light flashed, and you two were gone, or I was. I don’t know. It was different too!” Tristan spouted excitedly.
“Different how?” William cut in.
“That forest was right outside the spire, and then when I turned around I could hear you yell at me, but you weren’t there. Then the light flashed again and you two, or I was right back here.” Tristan finished with rapid breath.
Leena watched William gaze at the view only he could see. He had a curious sparkle in his eyes. Immediately she stepped down from the pedestal, shutting it off. The sphere of light around them vanished with a pop, and so too did their ears pop.
“Hey! Why’d you do that?” William sounded hurt.
“I know what this thing is!” She responded ardently.
The two boys stepped down and looked at her quizzically.
“Don’t you see?” Leena pressed. “It’s a doorway like the one we fell through.”
Tristan and William remained silent, pondering this.
“OK, maybe it’s not just like the one we fell through, but it does the same thing. It takes you from one world to another.” She finished quite sure of herself.
“Don’t you want to check it out?” Tristan queried.
“Are you kidding me?” Leena chastised him. “Do you want to end up lost and separated from the other kids? They could die here!”
There was no more arguing after that. They all agreed that any exploring of this fantastic doorway would be done as a team; team number seven. This being set, they determined that they would make the long trek back to the others in the morning, and bring them all back here. There was nothing more to be decided upon just then as it was getting dark outside quickly. The light from the walls of the spire below had gone out below, and the only light in the cathedral was from their flashlights, or the pedestals, so they opted for the flashlights. There weren’t enough berries left for a dinner and breakfast, so they rationed a protein bar split between them. This they washed down with a now precious sip of water, and it was clear they would be very thirsty by the time they made it back to the small valley so far away. When darkness had totally enveloped them they cuddled together and tried to sleep.
9: the golden fish